Ash Wednesday
Minute for Mission

Even the questions we may have been asking over the past week or so, such as, should I give up something for Lent? if so, what? can all too easily be self-focused. We can be quick to frame the question in terms of our own needs and which of those needs are most appropriate to sacrifice for forty days. Asking the question that way puts us at the center, puts us first.

Well, as an admired friend is wont to say, “It’s not about you!”

That’s right—it’s not about me. It’s about Jesus Christ! What Jesus says in today’s lectionary from Luke 18:14 turns the question, what’s in it for me? upside down in a powerful way:

“For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Reading this passage gives a new perspective on the Lenten journey. It leads to seeing the journey as an ongoing effort to understand each day, indeed each hour, in light of what humility might mean. It is not about not doing one thing, but about doing all things differently.

As we walk the next forty days with Jesus toward the cross, let us consciously look at the people around us and ask ourselves, what’s in it for them? Let us ask ourselves, how can we put them first?

—Elder John Detterick, executive director, General Assembly Council